Lost Unicorn, Never Again
by Nostrademons
Summary: There are many wonders on this earth. When Luna's five years old, she runs across one, a beast of beauty beyond any she'd experienced before. Contains mild OotP spoilers.
1. Shadows and Unicorns

ï»¿ DISCLAIMER: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. 

Pre-Hogwarts, contains OotP spoilers. We need more Luna fics, so I wrote one. Read at your own risk. 

**

Lost Unicorn, Never Again  
Chapter 1  
Shadows and Unicorns  


**

Luna would never forget the unicorn. 

It had first appeared early one spring morning, shortly before Midsummer's Eve of her fifth year on earth. Her mother gently shook her awake, and Luna, with the eagerness so unique to young children, had instantly sprung out of bed. 

"Come on," her mother said. "I'd like to show you something. Be quick, they may not stay long." 

Her mother hastily helped Luna throw some clothes on, neglecting shoes and socks. Luna had yet to master the art of tying her shoelaces, and mother refused to help her with magic. It didn't matter today. "Just go barefoot," her mother said. 

They hurried out the front door, running down the winding streets of Ottery St. Catchpole. The sun hung low in the sky to their left, ducking behind houses as they walked. Their shadows extended into the distance, reaching off into forever. 

"Where do shadows go when they disappear, mommy?" she asked as they walked. 

"They never really disappear," her mother replied. "They just fade out. But if you know where to look, you can find them again. Look," she pointed off into the distance, where the twisted image of a chimney stretched out across the grass. "It looks like it goes on forever. But if you follow it far enough," she said, guiding Luna's hand to trace the path of the shadow, "it all comes back together on some distant object." 

Sure enough, the shadow had ended up on the side of barn, way off in the field. There it made a perfect image of the original chimney, twisted spout and all. Luna laughed with delight. "Can we see my shadow too?" she asked. 

"Of course we can," her mother replied. "We just have to move a little farther down the road, so we're not covered up by the chimney." 

Luna was already skipping along. She felt the warm sunlight on her back, and looked across the field. There, off in the distance, a girl-sized reflection stood imprinted on the barn. She waved. The image waved back at her. 

"See?" her mother said. "If you don't see something the first time, just move a bit. Sometimes a new perspective is all you need. Now let's hurry up and move along. There's much more to see." 

They scurried past the bridge over the River Otter, stopping only briefly to gaze at the clear, sun-glazed water. Then they walked onwards through the rolling meadows that separated the village from the Weasley Burrow. "This is the way to Ginny's house," Luna couldn't help commenting. "We play over in that field. Sometimes her brothers come out and practice Quidditch. Ginny's going to steal one of their broomsticks as soon as she's tall enough to get in the broom shed." 

"She is, is she?" Luna's mother looked thoughtful. "Well, don't expect to get one yourself. I don't trust those things. Never could manage them right myself." 

Slightly disappointed (though she was already plotting ways to get Ginny to steal one for her), Luna decided it was best not to argue. They were cutting across the field now, and Luna felt the wet grass cushioning her footfalls. She wanted to run ahead, run across the field and into the forest, but her mother held her back. "Careful," she said, "you don't want to scare it off." 

Scare what off? Luna didn't see anything. But she held back, just in case. 

They were halfway across the field now, coming up on the dense forest that marked the boundaries of the Otter Meadows. The forest loomed ahead, trees illuminated by the sunshine streaming across the fields. Still, many secrets were hidden in the dark shadows of the underbrush. 

"You see it now?" her mother asked. "There." She pointed to a gap in the trees, a small clearing where the undergrowth thinned and the sunshine could penetrate a few yards into it. 

Luna strained her eyes, looking carefully as they moved ever closer. Something horse-shaped was standing below a gnarled old oak, just barely visible in the morning sun. Its silvery-white coat seemed to sparkle, catching the light in odd ways. 

They moved closer, a hundred yards, fifty. And then Luna saw the single horn atop its head. She drew in her breath. 

"A unicorn! It's a unicorn!" she gasped, delighted. She wanted to run forwards and touch it, to see that magnificent horn up close. But, remembering her mother's warning, she restrained her impulses. 

"Don't go any closer," her mother told her. "We don't want to scare it off." They stopped about twenty feet away, just watching. 

The unicorn had noticed their presence by now, and was studying them intently with its two silvery eyes. Luna stood absolutely still, afraid to breathe. It felt strange to have an animal gaze at her so intensely, but oddly gratifying. She stared back, watching. 

And then the unicorn neighed softly and lazily brushed the ground in front of it with a golden hoof. "Go on," her mother told her. "It's letting you come closer. Just don't make any sudden moves." 

She walked over to the unicorn, feeling the bare ground underneath her toes. It continued watching her, a kind of bemused interest in its eyes. Luna was afraid that it would turn around and bolt off into the forest, never to be seen again. But it just waited patiently. 

She reached out and ran her hands over the pure white coat. It felt softer than velvet, softer than anything Luna had ever touched. The unicorn moved closer to her and nuzzled her affectionately. After a moment, she drew back and ran her hand down its forehead, from the horn down to the eyes. It nibbled a little at her hand as she withdrew it. 

Luna giggled. "I thought it would be bigger," she said, turning to her mother, who now stood a few feet away. "It's not much taller than I am." 

"This one's not fully grown yet, probably about your age. The adults are big enough for us to ride on, though its rare that any unicorn would let itself be ridden by a human." 

"Shouldn't it be with its mother, then?" Luna asked innocently. 

"It'll find its mother soon enough. She can't be far off. Parents never stray far from their children, even when it seems like they're gone forever." 

"I hope so," Luna said. "I'd hate to be lost and alone without my parents. It must be scared to death." She ran her hand down the animal's neck, stroking its back. 

But the animal seemed to be getting bored. It didn't draw away or attack her or anything, but it wasn't nuzzling back like it had been before. "I think it's time for us to go," Luna's mother said. "Let this unicorn find its way back to its mother." 

"Will we see it again?" Luna asked. 

"I think so," her mother replied. "They almost never move far when they have a nursing foal. It'll probably be here, somewhere in the forest, for at least the rest of the summer." 

Worries assuaged, Luna reluctantly left the side of the unicorn. She gave it one last glance over her shoulder. It bowed its head to her, and gave a slight wave of the horn. A smile spread across Luna's face. She practically skipped after her mother as they walked back through the field. 

On the road back, she asked a question that had been on her mind since she first saw the unicorn. "Are there other creatures like the unicorn out there? Ones that I'll see sometime, I mean." 

"Of course. There're centaurs and hippogriffs and phoenixes and diricawls. Not to mention nifflers, kneazles, doxies and pixies, snidgets. Oh, and the Weasleys have a bit of a garden gnome problem, if you ever want to help them out." 

Luna sighed. "Not like that! I mean special animals, not ordinary ones." 

Her mother knelt down, took Luna's hand in hers, and very carefully looked her in the eye. She spoke deliberately - not slowly, but not rushed either. "The special animals are the ones that nobody has ever seen. They don't see them because they aren't looking. Remember the shadows. If you stand in a different place, suddenly all these new things become visible." 

Luna nodded, taking everything in. "But what animals? I want to hear about them!" 

"Oh, there're heliopaths - those're great big horses of flame. And Sogpas, the mysterious Indian monkeys. Bunyips - you don't want to get near one of those, they scream their heads off. But the most elusive creature of all -" she leaned in close to Luna and whispered in her ear - "is the Crumple-Horned Snorkack. It's a little like a unicorn, but lower to the ground, so it stays hidden by vegetation. And its horn isn't straight like the unicorn, but twisted, like that chimney over there." 

She pointed over to the twisted chimney that marked their entrance into the village of Ottery St. Catchpole, the one that had first cast its shadow this morning. Its shadow was much shorter now, casting a distorted image onto the dirt road they walked upon. Luna looked at it, moved onwards, and looked at it again. It changed. 

But she knew, as she thought back to the unicorn's pure whiteness, that regardless of perspective, some things would never change. 

~~~~ 

**Author's note**: It may _feel_ finished, but I've decided to stretch this out into a chaptered fic. Too many plot bunnies not to. ;) I'm going to structure it as a series of more-or-less independent vignettes that together form some semblance of a storyline. You could theoretically read them out of order (or one-at-a-time), but naturally they're better as a complete story. 

Already have ideas for the next 4 or so chapters, and some vague plans farther down the line. I'll try to keep updating fairly frequently. 


	2. Anticipation

**

Lost Unicorn, Never again  
Chapter 2  
Anticipation

**

The unicorns returned almost every day of that summer. At first it was just the foal; always waiting it the same place. Then Luna met the mother, a magnificent snow white creature that stood taller than the biggest horses she had ever seen. 

She went down to visit them first thing every morning, sneaking out of bed as the first rays of sunshine peaked through her window. They grew accustomed to her, and she to them. Sometimes she would bring along a book and read out loud to them. Or sometimes she would just sit on a stump by the forest's edge, watching them. She didn't mind the long periods of silence. She almost felt as if they were talking to her anyway. 

Because she knew that they – mother unicorn, baby unicorn, and her – shared a secret. Nobody else, not even Luna's own mother, cared enough to come down here. Nobody else knew about the unicorns. The little clearing by the forest's edge was her private little space, a place where she could sit in silent company and think and imagine, sharing her fantasies with only these two fantastic beasts. 

As the summer wore on, her visits became less frequent, dropping to twice a week, then once a week. But still, the unicorns were their every time she arrived, either basking in the clearing or running through the surrounding woods. Luna knew their routines so thoroughly by now that she could almost sense them approaching. 

Soon it was August, and the time came for Luna and Ginny's birthday party. They had been born less than a month apart, and so the Weasleys had traditionally held a huge birthday bash for both of them, inviting all the wizarding families in the area. (The Lovegoods had once tried hosting it, but the sheer number of esoteric magical items cluttering up their home had made that a disaster.) 

The date was tentatively set for the last week of August, splitting the difference between their birthdays. 

Luna made one last trip to the unicorns, the day before the party. They were waiting as usual, standing around in the clearing. 

She walked up to the foal and petted its back. "I'm going to be six tomorrow," Luna said. "Well, not really, my real birthday's in September, but everybody's going to think I'm six. The party's tomorrow." 

She looked over at the mother unicorn, who was now looking on curiously, and then spoke again to the foal. "Do you have birthday parties? Do you even know how old you are?" 

She giggled a bit, but the mother interrupted her with a loud whinny. It scratched the ground gently with one of its golden hoofs, marking off five circles in the dirt, and then drawing an arrow across field. 

Luna didn't understand. "What's the arrow for?" she asked. 

The mother unicorn just raised its head to the sun. 

Still a bit befuddled, Luna turned back to the baby. "Well, you know how old you are. That's the important thing." 

She patted its flank again. The foal seemed taller than it had been when she first met it; now she had to reach to pet its back. 

The sun was beginning to crawl up overhead, and the shadows of the forest began to cover the clearing. "I should go now. Mum will be making breakfast soon," Luna mused to herself. She walked out across the field. The grass was already heating up from the warmth of the sunlight, the long, hot summer day beginning in earnest. 

Tomorrow, she'd be crossing this field again, but for another visit. 

Tomorrow, she'd be a year older, at least in the eyes of the village. 


	3. Birthdays

**

Lost Unicorn, Never again  
Chapter 3  
Birthdays

**

Luna and her parents walked down the road heading to the Weasleys, Luna almost skipping with anticipation. They were a half hour late for the party, as usual. The Lovegoods never managed to be quite on time for anything. If they weren't an hour late, they were a week early. 

The three of them arrived at The Burrow, neatly dodging Mr. Weasley's enchanted lawn mower. He had the strangest taste in artifacts. 

"Aaron!" Mr. Weasley's voice boomed, calling out to Luna's father. "How ya doing? The Daily Prophet keeping you busy? I haven't seen you in ages. Still reporting on human/giant relations? I heard it's getting pretty nasty over in France. Little skirmishes and stuff." 

The adults were all seated on couches in the sitting room, and Luna's parents moved to join them. Luna clung to her mother's hand. She didn't want to leave. 

"It's okay Luna," Luna's mother told her. "I'll be right here. Run along and join the kids upstairs." 

Luna held back for a moment, uncertain. 

"Ginny's up in her room, dear," Mrs. Weasley said. "The Fawcett girls are here too. They've been waiting for you." 

That was enough for Luna. She left the adults behind and headed up the stairs, passing by Bill's room - where the boys were engaged in some loud activity - and heading for Ginny's. She pushed the door open a crack, just enough to see in. 

"Luna!" Ginny yelled, hopping off the bed and running over to the doorway. "Look what I got!" She held a broomstick in her hands, showing it off to Luna. 

"I was just showing it to Tara and Sara. Their parents won't buy one for them until they get into Hogwarts. Mine won't either," Ginny grinned. 

"How'd you get it then?" asked Luna, joining the other girls on the floor. 

"I crawled in through the side window of the broom shed. They usually leave it open a crack for air. Now I'm strong enough to lift it myself and crawl past the ledge." 

Ginny looked exceptionally pleased with herself. 

"It's Percy's broom," Tara added. "He never uses it himself, so he won't even notice it's gone. He likes to think he's all good at Quidditch and stuff, but he never flies, so when he gets on a broom, watch out," she said distastefully. Tara was a year younger than Percy and probably hated him more than anyone in the village. 

"Yeah," Ginny nodded. "Anyway, look what I can make it do." 

She put the broomstick down on the floor, held out her hand, and said "Up!" It floated effortlessly into her palm. Sara gasped with delight. Luna felt herself smiling. 

"I want to try flying it, sometime when nobody's looking. It can't be that hard. Fred and George do it all the time," Ginny said. 

"My mother won't let me fly broomsticks," Luna said, frowning. "She says I need to be well grounded or something like that. That and it's dangerous." 

"Oh, it can't be that hard," Ginny said. "Fred and George do it all the time. They're only three years older than us." 

"Even our mother lets us fly," Sara broke in. "She just won't let us have our own brooms. Or let us borrow hers when she's not around. Or let us fly too high." Sara started frowning a bit. 

"Still," Luna hesitated. 

Mrs. Weasley's voice came booming from downstairs. "Girls! Food is ready!" 

The four of them ran downstairs, where a magnificent (and probably somewhat magical) pot-luck lunch awaited them. Luna, unfortunately, was a picky eater. None of the exotic casseroles, stews, roast game, or other fancy foods appealed to her. She contented herself with a butter-and-sugar sandwich, and headed out to the garden to find a spot to eat. 

"Just a sandwich?" said Sara, walking over with Ginny close behind her. Her own plate was piled high with food. "No wonder you're so skinny. You look like you'd blow away in the wind." 

"I have enough," Luna said simply. 

She nibbled at her sandwich, eventually finishing it long after the other girls had polished off their meals. Over in a corner of the garden, the boys had gathered. Luna looked over there, wondering what they were planning. Finally, Ginny noticed her gaze. 

"Oh no!" she said. "I've got Percy's broom in my room! He'll notice it's gone if he's going to play!" 

Out of nowhere, George popped up behind them. "Not to worry. You think Percy would walk to the broom shed himself? I'll grab it on my way back. Nobody else'll know the difference." 

"Oh, thanks!" Ginny exclaimed gratefully. She shot her brother a smile, and Luna - just briefly - wished that she had a sibling. The feeling passed soon enough though; according to Ginny, they were usually more trouble than they were worth. 

The Fawcetts had to go home, and so Ginny and Luna were the only ones who couldn't participate in the Quidditch game. Well, Ron couldn't either (Mrs. Weasley wouldn't let him on a broom yet either, and besides, the teams weren't even), but they placated him by making him the referee. 

And so the two of them found themselves lying in the field by the Burrow, looking up at the Quidditch game proceeding above them. There were only three people per team, and so they couldn't fill all the normal Quidditch positions. Instead, Fred and George each carried a big bat and acted as both Beaters and Chasers. 

"Showoff," Ginny muttered, as Fred caught the Quaffle with one hand and simultaneously beat back a Bludger with the other. "He coulda just ducked." 

Luna just stared off into the sky. She liked Quidditch, but she'd seen plenty of games before, and they were all the same. The heavens above, however, always held something new. No two clouds were ever alike. 

"Look at Percy there! He almost fell off his broom!" Ginny convulsed with a fit of giggles. "And he wants to be captain of the Quidditch team when he goes to Hogwarts!" 

Luna didn't respond. The fluffy cloud overhead looked just like a unicorn. 

"Are you listening, Luna?" Ginny asked, turning her head towards Luna. "You're not, are you? Oh, why do always have your head in the clouds?" 

"It looks like a unicorn," Luna remarked. 

"Yeah, so? Why do you suddenly care about unicorns?" Ginny asked. "It's not like you're going to see one anytime soon. They never come near people if they can help it." 

"You're wrong," Luna said simply. 

Ginny suddenly perked up. "Huh? How do you know? Have you seen one?" 

A sudden doubt sprung up in Luna's mind. The unicorns were here secret - they'd come to trust her, and her alone. They came to her and kept her company. Nobody else had seen them, else the news would be all around town. Should she really tell Ginny about them? 

But in the end, her need to share won out. "I've seen them over in that forest there. In a little clearing. They come to me each morning." 

"Really?" Ginny's eyes opened wide. "Wow! I can't wait to see them! You'll take me, right?" 

"Uh huh," Luna nodded. But then she looked over at the forest. Over by the copse where she usually met the unicorns, there was a quick flash of white. Were they back? Had they come for her? 

But no. The creature wasn't standing still, waiting, like it normally did. Luna saw only its backside. It was moving, heading deeper into the forest. 

Running _away_ from her. 

**A/N:** Thanks to my reviewers for the first two chapters: Sphere's Delight, Neev, RR, Visser Voldemort, Elyse, Lily, Goggle Boy, Luna-Lovegood, and Rjk2005. Am hoping I can pick up the update pace; I had a bunch of other commitments last week that took priority. There's still quite a bit of character development before we get to plot, though. Bear with me. :) 


	4. Confession

**

Lost Unicorn, Never again  
Chapter 4  
Confession

**

The next morning, Luna went straight down to the clearing in the woods to see the unicorns. She had had a strange dream that night. Everything she had touched had disappeared, leaving her cold and alone in a strange wilderness. The dream had clung to her, leaving her shivering and unsettled when she woke up. 

She needed the unicorns to make everything right again. They'd been her companions all summer long. They would never leave her. 

Except they had. 

She waited for an hour. Still, the clearing remained vacant, silent except for the rustle of the wind through the leaves. No unicorns in sight. Not a sign of them. 

Finally, she gave up and walked back to her house. Her footfalls felt heavy as she made the trudge up the road. Were they gone forever? Had she done something to scare them away? 

She entered through the kitchen door and stalked past her mother. Her mother rarely asked her about her visits. Perhaps she wasn't interested, or perhaps she knew that Luna and the unicorns shared something that no adult could really understand. Some things can't be explained at all, they can only be felt. 

Then again, maybe parents had a similar link with their kids, because Luna's mother appeared in her bedroom door a few minutes later. Luna was huddled face-down on her bed. She didn't particularly want to talk. 

"They didn't show up," Luna's mother said. 

Luna nodded sadly, head still buried in pillow. 

"Oh, honey, maybe they were just off grazing today or something. They'll be back." 

"They won't," Luna said, and as soon as she said it, she knew it was true. The unicorns were gone. They weren't coming back. Ever. 

"How do you know?" her mother asked. "Things disappear all the time just to show up when you least expect it." 

"I saw them leave," Luna said. "They ran away during the birthday party." She wondered whether to add what she'd been doing when they ran away. Somehow, she felt that this was her fault, that she had betrayed their trust. They'd left because she had told Ginny about them. 

"Maybe they were just frightened off by the Quidditch game. Those Weasley boys sure make a lot of noise." Luna's mother smiled slightly. 

"I don't think so." 

Her mother sat on the edge of the bed for a bit, not saying anything. Then, almost abruptly, she got up to leave. "I'll be in my workshop if you need me," she said, and closed the door behind her. 

Luna turned over on her bed. Should she have told her mother that she had betrayed the unicorn's trust? It didn't feel right, leaving that unsaid. She couldn't keep the secret of a broken secret. 

Finally, she got up and headed downstairs, unsure of how - or what - she would tell her mother. 

She worked her way down the stairs, doing her best to avoid the mountains of clutter littering the hallway. Her family collected junk; nothing was too strange for the Lovegoods. Unfortunately, that meant she had to step lightly to avoid tipping over the nearest pile, lest she'd have even more explaining to do. 

Pulling open the basement door, she entered her mother's workshop. Her mother was hunched over her workbench, deep in the middle of some spell. A pale green glow shone from a small wire circle on the table. Once in a while, it flickered wildly, sending bright arcs off into the corners of the room. 

Luna waited until the spell was over and the ring had died down a bit before speaking. Her mother had warned her often about the dangers of interrupting a spell. The consequences could be fatal or worse. 

"Mum?" Luna began, tentatively. "I have something to tell you." 

"What is it?" Her mother laid her wand down on the workbench and turned to face her. 

Luna hesitated for a moment, wondering how to phrase it. "I…I told Ginny about the unicorns. They didn't want me too. That's why they ran away." 

Her mother looked at her with a mixture of surprise and … amusement? But it wasn't funny! The unicorns were gone, and it was her fault! 

"Oh, Luna," her mother began. "You didn't scare them away. Unicorns have their own way of things, and they'll come and go for reasons that we humans have no hope of understanding. Maybe they'll come back, maybe they won't, but it certainly wasn't your fault." 

"But…" Luna said, frowning. She didn't quite believe her mother. It made sense, at least, but Luna didn't think it was true. 

"Come here," her mother invited. Luna walked over to the workbench, and her mother laid a hand on her shoulder and looked directly into her eyes. "Not everything has to do with you. Not everything has a cause behind it. Sometimes things happen for no reason at all, and you just have to accept them and move on." 

"I don't understand," Luna said plainly. 

"Most of us don't," her mother replied. "But for some things, you don't have to. Logic can only explain so much. At some point you just have to give in and believe." 

Luna still didn't get it. Her confusion must have shown in her face, because her mother just laughed and said, "It's not a lesson you have to learn now. Just promise me one thing?" 

"What?" asked Luna, genuinely curious. 

"Remember. Remember what I'm telling you now, remember the unicorns, remember how it feels like now that they're gone. Because we're nothing without our experiences." And then, speaking to no one in particular, she murmured, "no matter how painful they might be." 

She snapped back to attention and looked back at Luna, smiling. "Promise me?" 

"I promise," Luna said, and she meant it, even though she had no idea what she was promising. 

~~~~  
**AN:**Thanks to my only reviewer for chapter 3, Elyse. 


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